The aviation industry has been one of the worst hit sectors due to the outbreak of the SARS-CoV 2 virus. Since the beginning of the crisis, all stakeholders are committed to air traffic recovery and return the number of flights and passengers to a pre-crisis level, i.e. to the 2019 level, a year which in these conditions is taken as a reference year.
It is apparent that the vaccination of the population and the relaxed travel restrictions imposed by the States very successfully mitigate the Covid-19 effects which last year significantly hit the aviation sector which suffered enormous financial losses.
Throughout this period, Eurocontrol has been striving to assist with its resources, including preparation of short-term scenarios and long-term forecasts for the expected air traffic levels in order to assist Service Providers optimize their operations and contribute adequately to air traffic recovery. According to its new forecast issued in the month of October 2021 for the period 2021-2027, there are three possible scenarios: the “High” scenario which is optimistic one and envisages its realization with further massive vaccination within Europe and globally, with a coordinated interregional approach, relaxed travel restrictions with most inter-regional flows restarting by the middle of 2022. The “Baseline” scenario is similar but with flows outside Europe recovering rather more slowly and with business travel only recovering to a pre-COVID levels in 2023. According to the most pessimistic “Low” scenario, this is delayed until 2027.
M-NAV is especially proud that during the month of August 2021 it almost reached the “High” scenario and it has seen an air traffic drop of -7.8% when compared to the same month in the year of 2019, followed by a slight decline of the curve and in the month of September it was recorded air traffic drop of -11.9% when compared to the same month in the year of 2019, so that in October, finally after more than а year and a half, M-NAV records an air traffic increase of 1.3% compared to the month October in 2019. Thus, the Republic of North Macedonia for the month of October 2021 is a country with the highest volume of overflights growth when compared to the year of 2019, at level of ECAC Member States.
M-NAV hopes that this trend of increasing air traffic will continue and we remain committed to safe provision of air navigation services to our Clients.
Source: Eurocontrol